Bahala na: CRM Planning

Most of the work that I’ve been doing since I got to site has been under the context of creating a coastal resource management (CRM) plan for Nueva Valencia. CRM plans are used widely around the Philippines. They are required under national law, but many municipalities don’t have them. They’re good tools for municipalities to guide their CRM policies and activities, and they’re also beneficial for receiving outside support. In my short time here, I have seen the importance of having a CRM plan when looking to partner with outside organizations, so there has been a big push here in Nueva Valencia to create such a plan.

The process began last February, with a stakeholder meeting to discuss how to go ahead with the process. This meeting was organized by an NGO, the Zoological Society of London, but since that first meeting, we here at OMAS have take charge of the planning process. Main activities have include the community focus group discussions (or participatory coastal resource assessments) that we carried out in every coastal barangays and the biophysical assessments, that we conducted in mangrove, seagrass, and coral areas. We also held a coastal law enforcement meeting with all the active law enforcement groups, like the municipal and provincial bantay dagats (“ocean guards”), the coast guard, and the Philippines national police.

The biggest event of the CRM planning process was a 3-day CRM Workshop in which 100 people from every coastal barangay (or neighborhood) and all active NGO and government partners were invited to come and devise the activities and policy recommendations for the CRM plan. I’ve noticed that there are a lot of people in Nueva Valencia working on CRM-related projects and activities, but there isn’t much collaboration and coordination, so it was nice to bring everyone together in one place. For the first day of the workshop we had speakers from various government agencies and NGOs give presentations on what we thought would be beneficial for the people to know before they started on the actual plan activities, such as a presentation on the output of our community meetings, about coastal and environmental laws, and about the importance of Marine Protected Areas (given by yours truly). On the second day, we broke up into small groups to come up with coastal zoning plan and then with the other activities for the benefit of the CRM plan. On the third day, the groups came back together to present and comment about the work they had done. The workshop was successful, and we were able to get what we needed, but the output definitely wasn’t perfect. Filipinos, particularly the men, go straight to the seats in the back and try to escape as soon as they can. This country hasn’t really picked up on cell phone courtesy (it wasn’t a big problem at the workshop, but it’s much more troubling at the movie theater), and during the group presentations, people weren’t giving too many comments to the other groups. Nonetheless, the workshop was a huge success and the weeks of planning, sending invitations, coordinating with speakers, seeking funds, coming up with group discussion topics and assigning the appropriate people to each group definitely paid off. Now, we have turned the output into a consolidate plan, reviewed it with the important bodies, and just last week, the plan was endorsed by the MFARMC (fisherfolk representative council) and now is ready to be deliberated by the municipal legislative council to adopt the plan as a municipal ordinance. That means I get to move on to other projects, working more directly in the communities and taking more control over my activities. While I’m definitely happy to have this plan off my desk after months of work, I realize that this was a great first big project to have at site. It kept me very busy and active, allowed me to learn about how different types of activities are done here in Nueva Valencia, taught me the greatest issues and challenges facing the people of NV, and introduced me to possible partners, both in government and NGOs and in the communities. These are the people I will be working with in the coming months, so I am very lucky I’ve gotten to meet so many smart, dedicated people.

CRM Workshop in the Nueva Valencia Covered Gym

Breaking off into breakout group discussion

Sir Obing and Rebecca (the Women Sector representative of the fisherfolks council) giving out lunch

Definitely my favorite picture of the event. On day 3, our "energizer" activity, to wake up the crowd, was group massages. I didn't see it coming either. If you look to the left, you'll see a big white giant hovering over Rose Jane from the provincial office. That's me!

Now we switch. Rose Jane can hardly reach!

Warlito a.k.a. Monet presenting his group's output

Still standing after 3 days straight. The tall guy on my left is standing on 1 ft concrete block.

Despite what it may sound like, my entire “summer” (or rainy season as we have here from Memorial Day to Labor Day) hasn’t been entirely filled with CRM planning. Below are some pictures from some of the times we’ve had this summer…

What would a summer be without a day at Raymen? Lucky for me, this beach is a 10-minute trike ride from my house, and the weather is good for swimming year round, even if it's raining. In fact, Filipinos prefer it that way!

Me and Tita Esai

Elliott got some facial hair. Between that and dog food, I'd probably prefer the later. Thanks Tyler and Stefanie!

Hanging out at my nipa hut with my counterpart Riro and Luzel, also from OMAS, and some of my other counterparts. We cooked up some stir fry and rice and had some T5 before another Friday night at the plaza. I don't have enough plastic stools, so we moved the kitchen table into my bedroom. Whatever works!

Nini, Luz, and I.

What's different in this picture?

One last time.

Didn't think we were going to have all the fun, did you?

And so on...


And so on...

Celebrating July 4th (with our Japanese friends).

Hanging out at Stef's house - our go-to hangout spot. She's moving out at the end of the month though, so look like we'll be needing a change of venue.

What's July 4th without some sparklers

And fireworks! We ended up getting a noise complaint, via Stef's supervisor, a rather impressive feat in the Philippines.

Stef's parents and brother came to visit a few weeks later. Here we are at Sa Payaw.

Trip for Stef's birthday to Bacolod City, home of Masquera (the mask festival)

Esai and Stef at a Hibachi restaurant in Bacolod. First time making dinner reservations in over a year. Bacolod has some great restaurants. And bars and clubs. But Iloilo City is still number 1 in my book.